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205
motive came from the agency’s lack of clout and its vest-pocket client list, hardly
forceful enough to bully studios or persuade them to offer conciliations. Why
would a studio budge with an agent it did not need to deal with for other prominent
clients? Moreover, Jaffe maintained that long-term contracts remained
impermeable and unbreakable, with little to no possibility for renegotiating, even
while Feldman and Selznick diced and minced contracts practically under his nose.
In Bogart, Jaffe picked up a commodity with an erratic record, moving in
and out of pictures in various capacities, whether starring in pulpy productions like
Black Legion or San Quentin, gutter-level B-films like Crime School or The
Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse, or co-starring in mainstream fare like Bullets or Ballots,
always below the bill and below the salary of stars like George Raft and Edward G.
Robinson. In Bogart, Jaffe also acquired a property with only intermittent bursts of
drive and protestation, certainly frustrated, but festering more than fighting. Studio
executives were slow to figure out what critics noticed in Bogart, a simmering
energy coiled in a cool but tense continence. But Jaffe acted slowly too. Studio
associate producer Mark Hellinger’s intervention played a strong role in getting
Bogart into more fitting roles in his productions of The Roaring Twenties and High
Sierra.
Still, the year he took over as Bogart’s agent, Jaffe played a role in getting a
salary increase, lifting Bogart to $1100 a week, still below the going rate for actors
of his status, and reaching $2000 in the sixth and seventh years, but still no say
over loan-outs, scripts, or casting.172 And unlike Feldman and Selznick clients who

My dissertation covers a hitherto overlooked dimension of the classical Hollywood film industry: the role of talent agents in the 1930s and 1940s, the formative years of the studio system. Through extensive primary archival research I have unearthed the strong function served by talent agents in the studio system of the 1930s and 1940s. Drawing on recent work in economics, economic sociology and theories of institutions, my project broadens and complicates traditional depictions of the studio era. I trace the syndicate of managerial roles -- agents in particular, but studio executives as well -- that constituted the studio "system" as much as the concentrated management within the major film production companies. I demonstrate the social connections that translated into business relationships and how this system aided and abetted the individual reputations of stars, directors, and writers -- as well as the reputations of the agents themselves. Thus, my project, in addition to documenting the early history of agents, adds a new theoretical perspective on agency within the studio system.

205
motive came from the agency’s lack of clout and its vest-pocket client list, hardly
forceful enough to bully studios or persuade them to offer conciliations. Why
would a studio budge with an agent it did not need to deal with for other prominent
clients? Moreover, Jaffe maintained that long-term contracts remained
impermeable and unbreakable, with little to no possibility for renegotiating, even
while Feldman and Selznick diced and minced contracts practically under his nose.
In Bogart, Jaffe picked up a commodity with an erratic record, moving in
and out of pictures in various capacities, whether starring in pulpy productions like
Black Legion or San Quentin, gutter-level B-films like Crime School or The
Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse, or co-starring in mainstream fare like Bullets or Ballots,
always below the bill and below the salary of stars like George Raft and Edward G.
Robinson. In Bogart, Jaffe also acquired a property with only intermittent bursts of
drive and protestation, certainly frustrated, but festering more than fighting. Studio
executives were slow to figure out what critics noticed in Bogart, a simmering
energy coiled in a cool but tense continence. But Jaffe acted slowly too. Studio
associate producer Mark Hellinger’s intervention played a strong role in getting
Bogart into more fitting roles in his productions of The Roaring Twenties and High
Sierra.
Still, the year he took over as Bogart’s agent, Jaffe played a role in getting a
salary increase, lifting Bogart to $1100 a week, still below the going rate for actors
of his status, and reaching $2000 in the sixth and seventh years, but still no say
over loan-outs, scripts, or casting.172 And unlike Feldman and Selznick clients who